Chapter 10: Chaesin game

*

When I was still in elementary school, I was a bit of a delinquent.

In my memories, my parents were always working, and I often ate dinner alone. When Mom finally quit her job and came home, it felt like she only cared about my younger sibling. Of course, a newborn is so fragile that you can’t take your eyes off them for a second, but as a kid, I couldn’t understand that. I just resented Mom for not paying attention to me.

So, I wandered outside, hanging out at PC bangs or arcades after school.

I got extorted by some rough middle school punks, and those memories are mostly embarrassing and unpleasant.

But looking back, even those are nostalgic.

For boys, gaming was the biggest interest, and thanks to some unintentional early training, I became a gaming pro in middle school, making lots of friends.

After Soye grew up a bit and Mom went back to work, I got busy looking after her, so I couldn’t hang out as much. But thinking back, I was really happy then.

Not that I resent Soye. My adorable little sister feels half-sibling, half-daughter, so I can’t hate her.

The point is, I love gaming.

Thinking about starting a game on a brand-new computer, I was excited to see how much games had evolved in my absence.

“Let’s see…”

Sitting at the computer, I searched for online game rankings on the green search site.

I was shocked to see the game still holding the top spot, same as eight years ago.

What, it hasn’t gone under yet?

But I didn’t want something familiar—I wanted a new game to test this cutting-edge computer. I skimmed past names I didn’t recognize.

Some games from over a decade ago still held strong, but most of the rankings had shifted after eight years.

Still, they were all a few years old. I wanted something brand new.

I must’ve searched wrong, so I looked for recent releases and found one that just launched yesterday.

Blade Arts, a new game from Taiwan.

Characters like ninjas, swordsmen, and mystics in an Eastern aesthetic, dropped into a battlefield to collect random items, grow stronger, and fight until one survives in a battle royale format.

The mishmash Eastern vibe reminded me of Cheonyang, feeling familiar.

The battle royale genre, something I’d never seen, intrigued me, so I installed it.

Or tried to.

“What, I have to buy the game to install it? Why?”

Console games you buy, online games are subscription or freemium.

Isn’t that common sense?

But the world after eight years was forcing its new “common sense” on me.

Why do I have to buy an online game first?

No problem, though. I’m not a broke student anymore; I can swipe Dad’s card freely.

“…”

But as a relic from a past era, I had no idea how to pay with this card!

“This world’s progress is truly astonishing. In just eight years, old knowledge becomes useless.”

Blackie wasn’t mocking me—just genuinely marveling at Earth—but I felt like I was losing.

“No, I’m young! I’ll adapt quick!”

I didn’t.

I had to ask Soye for help.

I thought a girl like her might not know this stuff, but she solved it easily.

“Unnie, you’re starting Blade Arts?”

“What, it’s a famous game?”

“It’s kind of a hyped title. It got good feedback in open beta. They say the wire-action fighting feels exhilarating.”

I felt the generational gap.

Even a tall, pretty girl like Soye plays games?

In my time, girls like her only talked about idols, celebrities, and dramas!

Did gaming’s reputation completely change in eight years?

“Do girls play a lot these days?”

“Way more than before.”

“Oh?”

“But I play because of you. Don’t remember? When I was five, you kept making me play games.”

“Oh.”

I was the culprit?

Now that I think about it, when I was in middle school, I had preschooler Soye play weird flash games.

Simple flash games on the computer or fruit-slicing games on a smartphone kept her quiet—er, cute.

I flinched, my shoulders shrinking.

“Why the guilty look? Gaming’s not a crime.”

“Right?”

“Hmm…”

Soye gave me a sly look.

“What, what’s that look?”

“You’re so cute, unnie. You don’t seem 25.”

Yeah, because I’m actually 32.

It felt weird, like a daughter calling her dad cute.

Since our princess is praising me, I shouldn’t mind, right?

Not sure, so I just laughed.

“Haha.”

“Let me watch! Start it quick!”

Soye seemed genuinely into gaming, not just pretending.

All thanks to my early training—thanks, right?

She brought a chair from her room, and I obediently started the game.

“Oh.”

After the opening trailer, in the game lobby, I felt the leap in graphics.

The stiff, blocky polygons of old were now almost photorealistic.

As a gamer, I couldn’t help but be thrilled.

I jumped into the tutorial, learning controls and gameplay.

The key was the stamina system—running, attacking, defending all used stamina. If it hit zero, you were restricted, easy prey.

There was also wire-action for fast movement across terrain and a parry system that rewarded precise counters.

“Got it.”

Time to start.

“I like fast, stylish characters, so I’ll pick this.”

I glanced at Soye, but she didn’t seem to care.

Why the glance? I chose a Japanese sword-wielding girl in a mini-kimono showing off her thighs.

Can’t resist a sword-wielding beauty.

In third-person view, the fluttering kimono ties and white thighs made me want to give the design team 500 thumbs-ups.

‘You still can’t resist pretty girls.’

‘Keep it a secret from Soye.’

Liking pretty things is natural for guys—no, for people, right?

‘I’m neither a guy nor human anymore.’

Anyway, back to the game. I started the main mode, battle royale.

Sixty players.

I thought gathering 60 people would take time, but maybe because it launched yesterday or I joined late, the queue filled in under five seconds.

From the solo lobby to the game lobby, I had to pick a starting point on the map.

“Hmm…”

I didn’t study the map.

To get used to the game, fighting a lot would be best, right?

“That spot will be packed.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s been forever since you touched a keyboard and mouse. Sure you want to dive into a hotspot?”

“If I mess up, I’ll learn by dying.”

Gaming’s like sports.

If you’re scared of falling or failing, you’ll never improve.

You learn by falling in sports, dying in games.

With that mindset, my first match began.

*

The Sword Demon stood atop the castle wall.

Dozens of corpses littered the ground, forming a barrier of their own.

But foolish victims, failing to grasp the meaning, charged in and were cut down.

“Wow…”

[That’s art]
[Game’s got real visual flair, fr]
[You guys game company shills?]
[Filter the shills, it’s cool]
[Is that a hacker?]
[Game came out yesterday, how’s there a hack lol]
[Maybe it’s a trash game cracked in a day?]

The chat scrolled endlessly, with so many viewers.

Streaming this was Freejit, a famous “good at games” streamer.

A pro from the FPS game that sparked the battle royale boom, he reached top ranks in every game he touched, known for being above average at anything.

With over 300,000 subscribers on the world’s biggest video platform, YouTube, and an average of 5,000 live viewers on Twitch.

He tackled Blade Arts yesterday, got crushed in the newbie zone, and was reviewing the replay.

The opponent’s impact was that strong.

The user fox32 started at the map’s center, Hwangcheolseong, slaughtered 12 players there, went to a nearby village to kill 5, then, as the mysterious fog narrowed the battlefield, killed 3 more on the way back.

From the high wall, they tore apart every approaching player.

Finally, they cleanly cut down Freejit, achieving 33 kills and victory.

Hilariously, over half the match’s players were killed by them.

A true master among masters.

“Of course it’s a smurf, right? No idea how they got that good in a day, but impressive.”

[Newbie zone massacre ain’t hard lol, just noobs who don’t know how to play]

Clueless talk.

Freejit had secretly practiced all day yesterday on another account to maintain his “good at games” image.

In all those matches, he never saw a player like this.

This person was destined to be a ranker—Freejit would bet money on it.

If he could find someone to bet with.

‘Can’t say that out loud.’

He practiced in secret, so Freejit kept quiet.

His plan to win his first match and start streaming fell apart, but his awe for this player outweighed the sting.

‘They’re a monster. A pro from another game?’

As Freejit went silent, the chat, thinking he was hurt, naturally turned to teasing him.

[Freejit, you’re better with guns than spears]
[Fight again with your main weapon!]
[Bringing a gun to a sword fight’s cheating lol]

They didn’t know yet.

The storm fox32 would unleash on the gaming world.

This was the first official appearance of fox32 online.